Can’t wait for the DC area’s Small Press Expo, so you can get your comic creator fix? Well you don’t have to – SPX is sponsoring three creators at this Saturday’s National Book Festival!

I could blah-blah about this, but why should I when the wonderful folks at SPX have done all the work for me? Spoiler: Peirce (Big Nate), Telnaes (editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post) and Lester (syndicated editorial cartoonist) are bound to be incredibly interesting speakers at this Saturday’s Fest!

Read on for all the details!

Small Press Expo Sponsors Lincoln Peirce, Ann Telnaes and Mike Lester at the National Book Festival

Bethesda, Maryland; August 29, 2017

Media Release ­— Small Press Expo (SPX) is proud to announce it is again a sponsor of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. As a part of this sponsorship, SPX is supporting Lincoln Peirce, Ann Telnaes and Mike Lester at the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

The National Book Festival takes place Saturday, September 2, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C.

Lincoln Peirce is a cartoonist and writer for the popular comic strip, Big Nate. It currently appears in over 400 newspapers, including The Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He is also the author and illustrator of a best-selling series of Big Nate novels based on his comic strip. His books have been honored by the American Library Association, the Children’s Book Council and the American Booksellers Association. Peirce’s most recent book, that stars sixth-grade student Nate and his friends, is Big Nate: A Good Old-Fashioned Wedgie from Andrews McMeel.

Lincoln Peirce will be signing his books from 5:00PM-6:00PM, and from 6:55PM – 7:30PM will be have a talk in the Graphic Novel Pavilion with Michael Cavna of the Washington Post.

Ann Telnaes is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post who works in various mediums—animation, visual essays, live sketches and traditional print. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for her print cartoons and the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year for 2016. In 2004, she donated 81 of her original drawings to the Library of Congress, which then showed her work in a solo exhibition. Also in 2004, the Library of Congress and Pomegranate Press published her first book, a collection of her editorial cartoons titled Humor’s Edge: Cartoons by Ann Telnaes. She is the current president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

Mike Lester is an award-winning editorial cartoonist and illustrator whose work is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group. His children’s book A Is for Salad was a New York Times best-seller in 2000. In 2012, he created and launched the comic strip Mike du Jour. He has received the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben award for best book illustration four times, in 2000, 2006, 2008, and 2010, and the Reuben for best advertising illustration in 2004. He also received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for editorial cartoons in 2007 and 2010.

Ann Telnaes and Mike Lester will be signing books from 4:30PM-5:30PM and from 5:55PM-6:30PM will be in a panel discussion with Michael Cavna.

The primary goal of this sponsorship is to bring creators from the indie comics community to the National Book Festival to provide greater exposure for them and their works to the diverse audience that attends this prestigious festival. As a partner with the Library’s Center for the Book, Small Press Expo looks forward to help promoting their various literacy initiatives and events. More information about the National Book Festival can be found at http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/.

SPX also supports the Small Press Expo Collection at the Library of Congress, which preserves the history of both the artistic output of the creators who come to SPX, as well as the art that SPX itself generates as part of its yearly festival. It the first program of its type by a major institution in the United States to preserve the works of the indie comics community.

Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together more than 600 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year’s guests.

The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.

As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which funds graphic novel purchases for public and academic libraries, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which protects the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals. For more information on the CBLDF, visit their website at http://www.cbldf.org. For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.spxpo.com.